Today is a memorable day for victims, as our country administers justice for the 1,000th time.
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U.S. Executes 1,000th Person Since 1977
North Carolina Murderer Becomes 1,000th Person Executed in U.S. Since 1977
By ESTES THOMPSON
The Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. - A convicted murderer was put to death Friday in the nation's 1,000th execution since capital punishment resumed in 1977.
Kenneth Lee Boyd, 57, received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 2:15 a.m., said state Department of Correction spokeswoman Pam Walker. Boyd was convicted of killing his estranged wife and father-in-law in 1988.
His death came after both Gov. Mike Easley and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene and stop the execution.
Larger-than-normal crowds gathered at the prison in Raleigh, where prison officials tightened security. Police arrested 16 protesters late Thursday who sat down on the prison's four-lane driveway, officials said.
Boyd, 57, did not deny that he shot and killed Julie Curry Boyd, 36, and her father, 57-year-old Thomas Dillard Curry. Family members said Boyd stalked his estranged wife after they separated following 13 stormy years of marriage and once sent a son to her house with a bullet and a threatening note.
During the 1988 slayings, Boyd's son Christopher was pinned under his mother's body as Boyd unloaded a .357-caliber Magnum into her. The boy pushed his way under a bed to escape the barrage. Another son grabbed the pistol while Boyd tried to reload.
The Supreme Court in 1976 ruled that capital punishment could resume after a 10-year moratorium. The first execution took place the following year, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah.
Boyd told The Associated Press in a prison interview that he wants no part of the infamous numerical distinction. "I'd hate to be remembered as that," Boyd said Wednesday. "I don't like the idea of being picked as a number."
The 1,001st could come Friday night, when South Carolina plans to put Shawn Humphries to death for the 1994 murder of a store clerk.
In Boyd's plea for clemency, his attorneys said he served in Vietnam where he was shot at by snipers daily, which contributed to his crimes.
As the execution drew near, Boyd was visited by a son from a previous marriage, who was not present during the slayings.
"He made one mistake and now it's costing him his life," said Kenneth Smith, 35, who visited with his wife and two children. "A lot of people get a second chance. I think he deserves a second chance."
Smith's wife planned to witness the execution, as did two other family members of the victims whose relationship was not immediately clear. Boyd's lawyer, a small group of law enforcement officials and journalists also planned to watch through the thick, twin glass panes between the viewing room and the death chamber.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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